tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345621281568717231.post1012084957986563104..comments2024-03-20T16:26:27.465-07:00Comments on sean cubitt's blog: Democracy and affectSean Cubitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762116527377238907noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345621281568717231.post-48805665296645146712008-10-11T08:14:00.000-07:002008-10-11T08:14:00.000-07:00I wasn't sure where to put this comment but here s...I wasn't sure where to put this comment but here seems as good as any.<BR/><BR/>Heard you on RN's Artworks programme. Interesting ideas, I'd tend to agree with what you have to say about professionalism. As a designer currently living in London I find the working culture here is to keep everything a secret. I don't mean campaign ideas and strategies which I can understand, but everything down to everyday studio skills.<BR/><BR/>This has never been my approach, I love to share technical and creative ways of working. I see no benefit in holding onto the knowledge like some sort of corporate trade secret. <BR/><BR/>There seems to me to be a fear created, in part, by modern copyright laws that if I reveal my techniques or insights that I become redundant and someone will make a killing with them. In my case and for the work I do this is extremely unlikely. <BR/><BR/>I also find that sharing creative skills is often a two way street.<BR/><BR/>For me there is also a point where I think that just because I share my skills doesn't mean that the person sitting next to me is suddenly going start producing great design or digital art. The methods of working that I have developed over the last 18 years or so cannot be distilled to brief conversations in a design studio.<BR/><BR/>I think where many artists deride the encouragement of amateur arts is in the idea that anyone who paints or draws is raised to the level of a professional working artist. <BR/><BR/>Devaluing art be making everyone an artist no matter the end result is a bad idea. Giving everyone access to the basic artistic skills, as is done with language, math and science is a worthwhile project. Just because I can sketch a nice sketch of my family doesn't make me an artist but it does enrich my life and perhaps make me a more well rounded person. The same way that being able to do the family accounts doesn't make me a mathematician.<BR/><BR/>In that sense I think there is a place for professional artists but perhaps there is a way where the kind of secretive cultish professionalism can be democratised and opened up. The open source software community is perhaps an interesting example of how this sort of approach could be successful.<BR/><BR/>However just as a parting contradiction, perhaps this just isn't going to happen. If you look at the history of art and I'm thinking here of David Hockney's Secret Knowledge. Many of the great masters kept to themselves the production methods they used, routinely burning sketches and studies leaving only the larger finished works. Can we really expect any better of contemporary artists? Isn't it part of some more basic motivating factor in human nature that has little to do with art?<BR/><BR/>Thanks for making me think about this!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345621281568717231.post-23915869796020243362008-08-20T23:21:00.000-07:002008-08-20T23:21:00.000-07:00Even although you are a new migrant to Australia y...Even although you are a new migrant to Australia you would not classify yourself as part of the "precariat". The difference between you and other migrants being?<BR/>You wouldn't know how to operate the GPS in your taxi.<BR/><BR/> There is a clear line leading from your obsession with Wagnerian ring cycle media to not having enough to say about "rock against racism".<BR/> Maybe after a couple of summers in the sun your tan will set in and you can relax with skippy the bush kangaroo.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com